Vietnamese student honored at ISEF 2017

Vietnamese student, Pham Huy, won the third prize of the Robotics and Intelligent Machines category at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair 2017 (ISEF 2017 in the U.S.

Director of the Department of Education and Training of Quang Tri Province, Le Thu Huong announced early on May 20.

The eleventh-grader of a high school in the central province of Quang Tri won the contest with his robotic arm, which helps disabled people in Vietnam with a more affordable alternative to prosthetics. He aslo received a minor prize granted by an institute of technology in the U.S.

Huy's work previously won the first prize at the Vietnam’s national science contest. He then was among the Vietnamese students selected by the Ministry of Education and Training to represent the Southeast Asian country at ISEF 2017.

With Huy getting the highest award, the Vietnamese team also bagged four fourth awards.

Huy thought he was going to miss the competition after facing with a challenge getting his visa to enter the U.S., as he had been rejected twice. However, he got a last-minute visa to travel for the international science fair when it was only hours away from his flight departure for the U.S.